Eight-year-old Dana Chinbari is attending lessons for the first time in six months.
The young girl is among the hundreds of thousands of Gazan children who have been robbed of their education since war broke out in the tiny enclave in October 2023.
While formal education remains out of reach during the conflict, Dana is taking part in a rudimentary class, which has been organised by volunteer teachers.
The lessons take place in the sand among the tent camps in the city of Rafah, in southern Gaza.
There are no uniforms, backpacks, desks or lunch boxes.
But Dana's face glows with excitement, as she hops up to sing a song in front of the class.
"I am a little Palestinian girl, I have a good heart, I have a good spirit, and harm no-one," she sings to her peers, as they clap for her performance.
The class holds extra significance for Dana after she was recently released from hospital following an Israeli air strike.
She was injured in the attack, which also killed her brother.
As she makes her way to class, her father Mouawi Chinbari says he is overjoyed to see his little girl smiling again.
"It is important that she gets an education," he says.
"She had a lot of unused time and, after her injury, she became more solitary.
"Since I have registered her at the classes, it has uplifted her morale, and she is making the best of her classes."
United Nations agencies estimate 625,000 children have been without an education since Israel started its bombing campaign inside Gaza last year,.
The Gazan health ministry says more than 33,700 people have been killed since October 7.
The teacher hoping to improve his students' futures
Mohamad Khodari was a teacher before the war and was also forced into the south of Gaza to escape fighting.
He has since started volunteering to teach lessons to displaced children struggling with the effects of the war.
"Our objective is to provide an escape for those beautiful children who suffer from destruction, bombardments," he says.
"Children of Palestine want to be educated, they need creativity and diversity."
Mohamad tapes large pieces of paper covered in Arabic text, to the outside of the tents.
Today he's teaching the children the Arabic alphabet.
He focuses his lessons around the south of Gaza, where more than a million Palestinians have fled to escape fighting elsewhere in the Palestinian enclave.
"We wanted to ensure that the southern part of Gaza gets its part of the education," he said.
"We focused on the Arabic language and we have over 3,000 children who are learning with us."
An analysis by humanitarian provider Education Cluster, which partners with Save The Children and the United Nations, has found more than 89.2 per cent of all the schools in Gaza have been directly hit, destroyed, likely damaged or possibly damaged through the war as of March 30.
It also found almost all education equipment – including chairs, desks, whiteboards and textbooks – have been destroyed.
'We've lost a whole year's worth of education'
Education Cluster coordinator David Skinner says the effects of the catastrophe will be felt for generations.
"In all my years, I can't think of somewhere where there's been such a sudden degradation of the education system," he says.
"We've lost a whole year's worth of education – even if there's a ceasefire soon – it'll still take out a whole year of learning.
"But that pales in significance to the biggest problem, which is how are children who have gone through this experience going to get back into learning?"
He says everyone has been impacted by the war in some way.
"Every child has seen things that they shouldn't have seen," he said.
"They've been bereaved, displaced — some several times — and there are significant mental health issues."
Mr Skinner says even when schools are eventually rebuilt, which could take years, the trauma experienced by children will affect their ability to learn.
"The best thing we can do for their mental health is to get them back into school to give them normality and predictability," he says.
"But at the same time, making sure that when they do go back to school, they're not facing stress about being in school.
"The school that they go back into has got to be a place where they feel really comfortable and safe, which is going to be extraordinarily hard. It's a really big challenge."
What does the future hold for Gaza's children?
Mother Suzan Ahmedal al Najib has signed up her 12 year-old child Tarek Yazan Awda for the classes with Mohammed.
But getting him to leave their tent in Rafah, is a challenge.
"[He] used to go to school to be educated, he was safe. Nowadays, his is afraid from bombardments, he is afraid to go outside," she says.
"I want my children to be ambitious … we want educated children not ignorant children."
She fears what will happen if he doesn't receive a proper education.
"If they stay like they have been on the streets, they will be lost," she says.
"I want my children to become doctors, engineers, to be useful to the community.
"It is our right to have education."
Mohamed says it's a heavy burden to provide psychological support, but he says providing some stability of education is already making a difference.
"At first, their morale was very low but these classes are uplifting for all of them," he says.
"We've all come together in this educational initiative to help children through games, drawing and storytelling.
"The education sector has to come back to life in Gaza."
